Peyton's Twin
by LilMusicalAuthor
Summary: Elle had one more secret. A boy. Peyton was not the only one born that fateful day. There was also a boy who was adopted by another family. A boy whose family soon fell apart causing him to become an abused orphan. What will he be like with his new family
1. Lies, Everytime You Close Your Eyes

"_Is there anything else? I mean, she was my real mother and everything right? No more surprises? No more mothers showing up on the doorstep?" _

"_No, Peyton. She was your real mother. You know that."_

"_I just want to make sure. I felt like the world was going to end when Mom died. The only comfort I had was knowing that I would never have to go through all the pain again. I thought that that was it. I would learn how to deal with it and then move on. But then Ellie showed up… And now she's dead… And it almost feels like living the whole thing over again," Peyton cried, not even thinking about how bizarre it should have been opening up to her dad like this. _

"_I know. And I'm so sorry, Honey. I just want to protect you as much as I can. I'm not sure how much I can tell you with still protecting you. Is there anything I can do?"_

"_Yes. Stop protecting me," she replied, not in a get-off-my-back type of way, just like she was asking for a favor. She wasn't sure how it sounded to her father's ears so she decided to elaborate. "Just for like one day," she continued. "I want to know everything. No more hiding stuff. Was there anything else that she didn't tell me that you know about?"_

"_Well," he started unsurely. "You really want to know?"_

"_Yes. What is it?"_

"_You have a twin brother."_

And that was how it all started. That was the reason she was sitting in her bedroom wondering what he was like. She had no idea. The only thing she knew about him was that he was put up for adoption. When they were born, Peyton already had a place to go. A family to live with. He didn't. He was put up for adoption. And now her dad was up in Virginia tracking down the adoption agency that had taken him in.

She wanted to meet him. She wanted to know everything about him. Did he know that they were twins?

He was adopted when he was a baby by a man and woman who couldn't have kids. Just like Peyton. When he was six, his adopted mom died. Kind of like Peyton. It was where the similarities ended.

Revelin. That was his name.

According to her dad who spent all morning talking to the adoption agency, his adopted dad got really depressed after his wife died. Peyton's dad had gotten a little depressed too, but he dealt. Well Revelin's dad got more than a little depressed. He started drinking. He started drinking and couldn't stop. Then he started to hit Revelin. Peyton couldn't believe it. This was her brother.

When she first found out she had a brother, she thought he would be just like her. When she heard that his mom died when he was little, she thought he would be even more like him.

Why not? Same parents. They had been thrown into the same experiences. Until he was six. Maybe if his dad didn't start drinking, then they would be the same. But his dad did drink. That made them different.

Peyton's dad told her that the only reason they took Revelin away from his abusive adopted-father, was that the man simply charged into the adoption agency one day. Entirely drunk. Screaming that he wasn't the one who wanted a kid. His wife wanted a kid and now she was dead and he was stuck with him.

The people at the agency had trouble understanding what the drunk was talking about. They understood when they saw the boy standing in the corner after the man stormed out.

The boy was obviously abused. When they called the police to arrest the man, he wasn't at his home. Nobody could find him. He was still missing.

Revelin had been thirteen by the time that that chaotic day at the agency had occurred. Too many years of abuse. Too many scars the doctors couldn't see. Seven years of being beaten by his adopted-father.

After that, he was sent to live with foster families. Four in those three years. Peyton couldn't imagine living with complete strangers. What if her dad had started drinking after her mom died? Would her life be the same as his?

Revelin was currently living with a loud, busy family. It was where the agency sent kids that nobody wanted while they tried to find them a home. That was at least how her dad translated it.

Now her dad was on the way home with him. He was going to stay with them. They were going to adopt him. He was Peyton's brother. He needed her. He needed them. He needed a family.

Peyton's dad was never home anyway. He said that it was up to her and she made up her mind. At the very least, he would gain a home and she would gain companionship. Neither one of them would be alone anymore. They would have each other.

Peyton couldn't wait to meet him. She still had no idea what he was like. Would he like the same kind of music? Did he draw? Would he look like her? What did he think when he heard that he had a sister? What did he think when he heard that he was being adopted by her father? There were so many questions! Her mind felt like it was going to explode if it didn't get answers!

She lay back on her bed and closed her eyes. She just needed to take a few deep breathes. What must it have been like for him? Would he like it in Tree Hill?

She had almost fallen asleep when she heard a car door slam.


	2. Broken Wings Have a Home Tonight

He was quiet. He had dark eyes that he usually kept aimed at the floor. E was tall and had dark hair. He glimpsed up at Peyton as he stood in the doorway and saw the obvious similarities. They had the same eyes. They had the same nose and face structure. They really did look like twins. And as she really looked at his hair, she could see a little bit of yellow poking up from the tops. He had blonde roots. They had the same hair too. But he died his.

Peyton thought about all the times she had wanted to die her hair. It was always when she was really depressed. Upset that her hair looked bright and sunny when it wasn't how she felt on the inside. Pissed off that people assumed that she was happy and peppy and dumb just because of how she looked on the outside. She even asked her dad if she could die it once. Not black or anything that dramatic. Just a nice shade of brown. How would it feel to be a brunette for once?

Then Brooke made her join cheerleading. Sure she had done it when she was little, but that was different. It was one thing to see a little girl jumping around with a short skirt and her midriff showing, waving pompoms around. It was cute. It was another to see a high school girl do. That was slutty. But Brooke signed her up anyway. And then she already had the whole dumb, slutty cheerleader thing going on. What difference did the color of her hair make?

She tried saying a few words to him, but he was too monosyllabic for her to really understand anything he was saying. Her father got him settled in the spare room and closed the door. How would her father feel about him? Would he think of him as a son? Technically, it was the brother of his daughter. That did kind of make him his son, right? But did that even matter? Her father was leaving again. As soon as he could, he'd be gone again.

He was going to stick around until Revelin "started to feel more comfortable." But that just basically meant that he wasn't going to leave his daughter in the house with some strange boy that neither of them knew until he was convinced that he wasn't a psycho murderer. That was fine by Peyton. She knew her dad cared, but he was gone so often that it was nice when he let his protective side show through for her.

Her father said that he had been really quiet entire ride. Answered all his questions with yes, no, or a shrug. Apparently he knew he had a sister though he didn't know how. He liked music although he wasn't sure what kinds. He had seen mountains before though not sure where. _Full of answers,_ her father joked. She hoped her dad would like him. She hoped that he would like her

Her father went off to bed, exhausted from the long car ride and convinced Peyton that that was just what Revelin was doing after she freaked out about him hiding in his room the second he walked in the door. She went to her own room and turned on some music. Music seemed to be the only thing that could ever really calm her. Music and art. So she began to draw a little bit too. Until her cell phone rang.

"Hey Peyt. Is he there?" It was Lucas. When her dad was Virginia looking for her long lost brother and Brooke was out trying to hook with some guy, Peyton needed to talk. So she called Lucas.

"Hey. Yeah. He's here." She knew that Lucas would able to tell that she wasn't so happy by the sound of her voice. Lucas was good at things like that.

"You have to give something like this time, Peyton." And so the comforting began.

She hung up with Lucas an hour later and started to draw again when she saw a figure walk past her room.

It was Revelin. She knew it. Her father had louder footsteps. If she hadn't seen the shadow pass her door, she would have never known he was even awake. He didn't make a sound. He was probably going to the bathroom. Peyton's dad had been sure to show him where everything was before letting him get settled in his new room. When he passed by again, Peyton called out to him.

He looked startled and a little upset. Like he really had been hoping to be able to sneak by without her noticing. Maybe he had been used to sneaking by without people noticing him. He stopped anyway and faced her bedroom; he glanced up a couple of times but kept his head down for the most part.

"Can't sleep?" Maybe he just needed to get someone to get him started. Then maybe he would talk.

Peyton's hope was crushed by the awkward silence that broke out after his simple nod. Peyton tried to give it a little time before saying anything else to see if he would ever answer. He didn't until she opened her mouth to ask him if he liked his room.

"I usually can't sleep my first night in a new place." Peyton looked up at her brother and studied him. She stared at his dark brown hair that fell about an inch above his eyes. She wondered if anyone else noticed the sliver of blonde peeking out from the part in his hair. He was about Lucas' height, just with a little more muscle. He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and black sweatpants. Now that he started looking around her room, she could see just how much his face resembled hers. She wondered if people she hadn't told him about would notice.

He started to turn uncomfortable under her gaze so she invited him in. He stalled for a second and she prayed that he wouldn't reject her. It was sort of a fork in the road kind of thing. He could either go back to bed and keep himself closed off, or he could go into her room and they could actually start their long over due relationship.

Luckily, he chose the later.

"Did you do this?" He was looking at the painting she had been working on earlier. It was a copy of a picture she had found in a book of a park in New York. It had a John Lennon mural in on a wall.

"Yeah. I love to paint. My… our mom was really artistic too." She wondered if Elle had gone to see him too. If she had, then why didn't she stay? Why didn't she take him away from the crappy life he had been living?

"Really? So you knew her?" He sat down on her bed. She was near ecstatic that she was having her first conversation with her twin brother.

"For a little bit. A couple of months she came around. I didn't even know that I was adopted and she's all, 'I'm your mom!' It totally freaked me out."

"So she just showed up one day? You never even heard from her before that?"

"Nope. Did you ever hear from her?" Had he? Had she gone to see him when his life was a mess? Did she not try to contact Peyton for the sole reason that she had a good life? That didn't really seem fair.

"No. I heard some stuff about a woman looking for me a couple months ago. Said she was my mom so they gave her all my information. They said as soon as she found out that I wasn't where she put me, she just walked out. Didn't say anything else. Never came back."

"Wow. That's weird. But I could see Elle doing that. She was eccentric, you know? Spontaneous."

"Do you still see her a lot?" That was like a slap in the face for Peyton. Not only did it bring back the few bad memories that involved her birth mother, but now she had to tell her brother, who was probably thinking that he could finally meet his real mother, that she was dead.

"Um. No. Not really."

"Oh." He sounded disappointed. Of course he was disappointed! How could he not be?

"She actually died a few weeks ago." There. Just throw all the kid's childhood hopes and dreams of having a real mother out the window with one sentence. "She had cancer."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry. I thought you knew." All she could do was hope that he wouldn't crawl back into his shell. They were really talking! Like real twins!

"That's alright. I mean, I feel bad for you. You actually knew her." He looked at her with his green eyes – her green eyes – and saw sincerity.

"Yeah." There was more silence. But this time, it wasn't awkward.

**Author's Note: **Lucas and Peyton are really good friends. All the crap between them and Brooke happened and now they're all over it except for some sexual tension between Brooke and Lucas. Nothing too bad though.


	3. I Crash My Car Everyday The Same Way

**Author's Note: **Yay reviewers. But all the rest of you suck. For the first chapter, I got four reviews right away. For this one, I just go my second and third. That's not too encouraging guys. If you don't let me know that someone's reading it then I don't have much of a reason to update, do I? Please review. They really do make my day. I'm really liking this story to. Hope you guys do.

**Author's Note (new crap):** So I'm really sorry about the confusion with the line breaks and stuff. I put them in when I was writing, I just guess they don't transfer over. Thank you to Onetreehillfan1988 for bringing it to my attention. Hope this is easier!

"Peyton. Peyton. Wake up honey. Come on." Peyton woke up and looked around her room. She was surprised that the intense gaze of the sun hadn't woken her up sooner. She must have stayed up late. She did stay up late. Talking to Revelin. Her brother. Her twin.

They had stayed up the entire night talking and then Peyton passed out. She had felt bad falling asleep when Revelin had obviously had enough energy to stay up for hours longer. She remembered feeling herself falling asleep, listening to him talk. He had a nice voice.

She wondered if he was mad that she fell asleep while he was talking. Did he get upset and storm off into his room, vowing to never speak to his sister again? Peyton pushed herself up onto her elbow. A big blob of darkness caught her eye. She let her eyes adjust to the light and looked again. Revelin.

He was asleep, curled up into a little ball at the foot of her bed. Obviously he didn't get mad and storm off into his room. She should have known he wouldn't do that. He told her that he could never sleep the first night in a new house. He never felt comfortable. He was always afraid that whoever he was staying with might turn out to be some sort of creep. He never felt safe for the first night and he never slept. But right now, he was sleeping. Did that mean something?

As Peyton smiled at her sleeping brother, her dad tapped her on the shoulder again.

"You've got to go. Lucas' downstairs."

"Crap!" She was supposed to go out to lunch with Lucas. She didn't want to leave Revelin but she promised Luke that she would fill him in on what Revelin was like. They could probably always come back to her house afterwards and all hang out anyway.

* * *

It had taken him a while to figure out where he was. He was used to waking up in strange places that he barely recognized. There were usually noises though. Sometimes it was just a busy house with a bunch of people, sometimes it was an angry couple screaming over money. Whatever it was, it usually woke him up early. The clock said that it was one thirty and the sun was up so he guessed he had slept in past noon. He couldn't remember the last time he had done that. 

"Hey, Mr. Sawyer." He had gone exploring through the house in search of Peyton, but only found her father. It had been three years since he was taken away from his first father, but he still found it uncomfortable to be in the same room alone with an older man.

"I haven't changed my mind, you know." The response startled him. He wasn't sure what the older man was talking about. Revelin just hoped it wasn't anything negative about him. Had he broken a rule? He couldn't remember any rules being laid before him. Although, sometimes he got rules confused with different houses.

No watching TV. Wait, no. It was the other house he wasn't allowed to watch more than a half hour of TV a day in. Or was it this one? No, this was the house with the dog that had to be on a leash if it went outside. He remembered making that mistake in the wrong house and ending up with a broken arm. You had to be careful about rules when you were dealing with people you don't know.

"Excuse me?" he asked the other man, remembering the odd response that had started his rumbled train of thought.

"Yesterday I said you could call me Larry. You still can." So this was a house where he could call the adults by the first name. He was sure he was going to mess that one up a lot more. It was better to be safe and call a man mister than be sorry for insulting him by using his first name.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"It's alright." There was a long awkward pause. The older man was just sitting at the table tinkering with a toaster while the younger man lingered in the doorway. Not sure of what to do. "How was your first night here? You sleep well?"

"Yeah. I'm really sorry that I slept in Peyton's room. I mean, we were talking and we just fell asleep. I just…"

"Don't worry about it. I just want you to be comfortable." This was a hard guy to upset. That was a change of pace. Maybe Revelin could learn to like that.

"So is Peyton around?" Enough awkward conversation. He was ready to have a comfortable laughing fit with his new sister. He really liked having someone around that he knew he could trust right away. It was comforting.

"She actually went out to lunch with a friend. She should be back any minute though. Are you hungry?" Revelin was about to lie and say no, when his stomach betrayed him. He didn't really like eating all too much. It was just never something that really brought him joy. He wished he was more normal and could eat like a normal person, but there were a lot of things he couldn't do like a normal person. And there was no way he could lie now.

"Yeah. I guess." Larry settled him down at the kitchen table with a bowl of fruit loops and milk. Ten minutes had gone by and he was still in the middle of his small bowl of cereal. Better to prolong the eating experience and avoid anything else awkward.

"Hey guys," Peyton walked into the kitchen holding a food carton full of leftovers from wherever she had been taken to lunch. She probably had no problem eating food. He, of course, had gotten stuck with the anorexic genes.

"Hey honey. How was lunch?" Larry stopped tinkering with the toaster for long enough to look up at his daughter. It was encouraging to know that he actually loved his daughter.

"It was great. Lucas had to go work at the café, but I was gonna go down there and hang out with him. I was wondering if Revelin wanted to go."

"Sure." Get out of the awkward silences? Sure! Why not?

"Cool. Let's go."

* * *

"Lucas? It's me… Umm yeah. Sorry about that… Yeah. Well, no… The hospital… No, no I'm fine… We were in a car accident… No nothing bad… Yeah, just a few bruises… He broke his leg actually. Well, I broke his leg actually… No he'll be fine… I was actually wondering if you could come down here… Yeah, he's here. He's filling out paperwork or something… Alright. Thanks Luke… Bye."

* * *

"Hey, sweetheart. Did you call Lucas?" her dad asked as she walked back out into the waiting room. 

"Yeah. He's on his way over. Did you hear anything?"

"No. But here's the doctor." The man was a short Indian man who talked with an understandable accent.

"Are you here for Revelin Wood?" he asked the two.

"Yes, we are. Is he alright?" Peyton was glad that her dad was doing all the talking. She didn't think that she would have been able to handle everything without him. She was really glad he wasn't leaving for a while.

"Could I speak to you alone, Mr. Sawyer?" The short man seemed to be studying the father and daughter before him.

"What's wrong? Is he alright?" Larry asked as soon as they were out of earshot to his daughter.

"From the car accident, he's fine. He fractured his leg and has a few scratches, but he should easily make a full recovery." The doctor seemed to be studying Larry's face again. As if searching for something wrong.

"Something tells me that that's not all that's wrong though." Larry prodded the doctor after a few moments of silence.

"Actually, there were some other things that I had questions about." More silence.

"Like what?"

"He seemed to have a lot of faded bruising in various places on his body. There were also a few bones we saw that look like they broke but weren't set correctly, if at all."

"I don't think I understand." What did all of this mean? If it wasn't from the car accident, then where was it from?

"With the physical symptoms he has, we have no choice but to suspect some form of abuse. Now if there's anything going on at home that…"

"No! No. We actually just took him into our home. Just yesterday actually. We're in the process of adopting him. He's been in foster homes for the past few years…" Maybe this kid had gone through more than they knew.

"Alright. I understand completely. And I apologize. We just have to be very careful with these things now a days."

"Don't worry. I get it." How could anyone bring themselves to hit a kid?

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Lucas showed up at the hospital. 

"Peyton! Are you alright? How's Revelin doing?"

"He's with me for like a day, and he ends up in the hospital! I broke him, Luke!"

"Peyton! You didn't break him! It was an accident. It wasn't your fault." Lucas couldn't believe how worried she was over her brother. It was adorable.

"He's just been through so much already. And now I go and put him in the hospital! I'm a horrible sister! I'm not even a sister! I'm just the weird, freaky girl who crashes cars for a hobby and kind of happens to look like him. He's gonna hate me now." Maybe not so much adorable as crazy.

"He's not gonna hate you now." It was an accident. He would understand! If he would forgive anyone after crashing him into a minivan, it would be Peyton.

"Listen, Luke? Will you go and like sit with him for a while? I don't want him to be alone, but I really don't think he wants to see me. Just go talk to him for a while? Please?" He was probably lonely. Peyton still couldn't believe what she had done. She almost killed her brother! He wasn't going to forgive her for that.

"All right. I'll talk to him. I'm sure he understands though. I'm not going to have to really talk him into anything."

"No! Don't talk about me. Just have a regular conversation with him. I'm probably the last thing he wants to here about anyway."

"Peyton…" It was ridiculous how upset she was. It was just an accident. He just hoped that Revelin wasn't the same way.

"Please, Lucas?"

"Fine." He got up to go into the room just as a nurse was coming out. "How is he?"

"He should be fine as long as he gets some rest. He's not sleeping, though."

"Can't you give him anything for that?" If he really needed rest then couldn't they just drug him up?

"We maxed out the levels of everything we could give him to help him sleep almost an hour ago. It was enough to put a small horse to sleep in minutes. But no. This kid has the immunity that ate Hong Kong. There's nothing else we can give him. See if you can get him to sleep, will ya?" With that, the nurse was gone and Lucas was left alone in the doorway of a guy he'd never met. Being the best friend was fun.

"Hey man." The boy in the bed jerked his head around so fast, it looked like it was going to fall off. His eyes looked like he was either doped up or going without sleep for two weeks. It made him wonder why the dude wouldn't just go to sleep. "I'm Lucas.

"Hey." It took a few seconds, but Revelin finally seemed to recognize the boy in the doorway. By name of course.

"How's it going?" Stupid thing to ask a kid in a hospital bed.

"Alright, I guess." Revelin seemed as weirded out as Lucas about the question.

"You like it here in Tree Hill?" Don't talk about Peyton. Don't talk about Peyton. Yes, avoid the topic of Peyton, the only thing the two boys have in common. Instead, have a lovely, meaningless, extremely awkward conversation.

"I haven't really gotten a chance to see anything yet."

"Well, I could always show you around…" Stupid. Eveytime he opened his mouth, something stupid came out. "You know. Not now or anything. Once you're up to it." Great cover.

"Yeah. Sounds good. I mean. I liked what I saw on the ride to the house. Lots of trees."

"Yeah. Trees are good." Lucas just sighed. 'Trees are good.'? He hoped their future conversations went better than this one.

"Yup." There were a few more moments of awkwardness, and then just silence. Lucas looked over at Revelin to see that he had finally fallen asleep.


End file.
